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with electronic mail</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Comparison_with_electronic_mail-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Delivery_process" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Delivery_process"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>Delivery process</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Delivery_process-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Forms_of_letters" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Forms_of_letters"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>Forms of letters</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Forms_of_letters-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Kinds_of_letters" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Kinds_of_letters"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>Kinds of letters</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Kinds_of_letters-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Security_methods" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Security_methods"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8</span> <span>Security methods</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Security_methods-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Gallery" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Gallery"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">9</span> <span>Gallery</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Gallery-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">10</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">11</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">12</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Letter (message)</span></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox mw-interlanguage-selector" aria-label="Go to an article in another language. Available in 88 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-88" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">88 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A9_%D9%85%D9%83%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A9" title="رسالة مكتوبة – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="رسالة مكتوبة" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ay mw-list-item"><a href="https://ay.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qillqa%C3%B1a" title="Qillqaña – Aymara" lang="ay" hreflang="ay" data-title="Qillqaña" data-language-autonym="Aymar aru" data-language-local-name="Aymara" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Aymar aru</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-az mw-list-item"><a href="https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C9%99ktub" title="Məktub – Azerbaijani" lang="az" hreflang="az" data-title="Məktub" data-language-autonym="Azərbaycanca" data-language-local-name="Azerbaijani" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Azərbaycanca</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bn mw-list-item"><a href="https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A0%E0%A6%BF" title="চিঠি – Bangla" lang="bn" hreflang="bn" data-title="চিঠি" data-language-autonym="বাংলা" data-language-local-name="Bangla" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>বাংলা</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-min-nan mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh-min-nan.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoe" title="Phoe – Minnan" lang="nan" hreflang="nan" data-title="Phoe" data-language-autonym="閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gú" data-language-local-name="Minnan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gú</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-be mw-list-item"><a href="https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%96%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%BE_(%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B5)" title="Пісьмо (паведамленне) – Belarusian" lang="be" hreflang="be" data-title="Пісьмо (паведамленне)" data-language-autonym="Беларуская" data-language-local-name="Belarusian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Беларуская</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-be-x-old mw-list-item"><a href="https://be-tarask.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D1%96%D1%81%D1%82" title="Ліст – Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)" lang="be-tarask" hreflang="be-tarask" data-title="Ліст" data-language-autonym="Беларуская (тарашкевіца)" data-language-local-name="Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Беларуская (тарашкевіца)</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bcl mw-list-item"><a href="https://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surat" title="Surat – Central Bikol" lang="bcl" hreflang="bcl" data-title="Surat" data-language-autonym="Bikol Central" data-language-local-name="Central Bikol" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bikol Central</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bg mw-list-item"><a href="https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%BE" title="Писмо – Bulgarian" lang="bg" hreflang="bg" data-title="Писмо" data-language-autonym="Български" data-language-local-name="Bulgarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Български</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bar mw-list-item"><a href="https://bar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briaf" title="Briaf – Bavarian" lang="bar" hreflang="bar" data-title="Briaf" data-language-autonym="Boarisch" data-language-local-name="Bavarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Boarisch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-br mw-list-item"><a href="https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizher" title="Lizher – Breton" lang="br" hreflang="br" data-title="Lizher" data-language-autonym="Brezhoneg" data-language-local-name="Breton" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Brezhoneg</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta_(comunicaci%C3%B3)" title="Carta (comunicació) – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="Carta (comunicació)" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cv mw-list-item"><a href="https://cv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87%D1%8B%D1%80%D1%83" title="Çыру – Chuvash" lang="cv" hreflang="cv" data-title="Çыру" data-language-autonym="Чӑвашла" data-language-local-name="Chuvash" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Чӑвашла</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopis" title="Dopis – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="Dopis" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Čeština</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-da mw-list-item"><a href="https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brev" title="Brev – Danish" lang="da" hreflang="da" data-title="Brev" data-language-autonym="Dansk" data-language-local-name="Danish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Dansk</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief" title="Brief – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Brief" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-et mw-list-item"><a href="https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiri_(s%C3%B5num)" title="Kiri (sõnum) – Estonian" lang="et" hreflang="et" data-title="Kiri (sõnum)" data-language-autonym="Eesti" data-language-local-name="Estonian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Eesti</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-el mw-list-item"><a href="https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%95%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%AE" title="Επιστολή – Greek" lang="el" hreflang="el" data-title="Επιστολή" data-language-autonym="Ελληνικά" data-language-local-name="Greek" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Ελληνικά</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta" title="Carta – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Carta" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eo mw-list-item"><a href="https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letero" title="Letero – Esperanto" lang="eo" hreflang="eo" data-title="Letero" data-language-autonym="Esperanto" data-language-local-name="Esperanto" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Esperanto</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eu mw-list-item"><a href="https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskutitz" title="Eskutitz – Basque" lang="eu" hreflang="eu" data-title="Eskutitz" data-language-autonym="Euskara" data-language-local-name="Basque" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Euskara</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87" title="نامه – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="نامه" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courrier" title="Courrier – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Courrier" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fy mw-list-item"><a href="https://fy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief" title="Brief – Western Frisian" lang="fy" hreflang="fy" data-title="Brief" data-language-autonym="Frysk" data-language-local-name="Western Frisian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Frysk</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%8E%B8%EC%A7%80" title="편지 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="편지" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ha mw-list-item"><a href="https://ha.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasika" title="Wasika – Hausa" lang="ha" hreflang="ha" data-title="Wasika" data-language-autonym="Hausa" data-language-local-name="Hausa" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Hausa</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D5%86%D5%A1%D5%B4%D5%A1%D5%AF" title="Նամակ – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="Նամակ" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Հայերեն</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hi mw-list-item"><a href="https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0" title="पत्र – Hindi" lang="hi" hreflang="hi" data-title="पत्र" data-language-autonym="हिन्दी" data-language-local-name="Hindi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>हिन्दी</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-io mw-list-item"><a href="https://io.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letro" title="Letro – Ido" lang="io" hreflang="io" data-title="Letro" data-language-autonym="Ido" data-language-local-name="Ido" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Ido</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-id mw-list-item"><a href="https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surat" title="Surat – Indonesian" lang="id" hreflang="id" data-title="Surat" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Indonesia" data-language-local-name="Indonesian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Indonesia</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ia mw-list-item"><a href="https://ia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littera_(message)" title="Littera (message) – Interlingua" lang="ia" hreflang="ia" data-title="Littera (message)" data-language-autonym="Interlingua" data-language-local-name="Interlingua" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Interlingua</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ie mw-list-item"><a href="https://ie.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettre" title="Lettre – Interlingue" lang="ie" hreflang="ie" data-title="Lettre" data-language-autonym="Interlingue" data-language-local-name="Interlingue" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Interlingue</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-is mw-list-item"><a href="https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A9f" title="Bréf – Icelandic" lang="is" hreflang="is" data-title="Bréf" data-language-autonym="Íslenska" data-language-local-name="Icelandic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Íslenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettera_(messaggio)" title="Lettera (messaggio) – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Lettera (messaggio)" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-he mw-list-item"><a href="https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91" title="מכתב – Hebrew" lang="he" hreflang="he" data-title="מכתב" data-language-autonym="עברית" data-language-local-name="Hebrew" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>עברית</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-kn mw-list-item"><a href="https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B2%A4%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%B0" title="ಪತ್ರ – Kannada" lang="kn" hreflang="kn" data-title="ಪತ್ರ" data-language-autonym="ಕನ್ನಡ" data-language-local-name="Kannada" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ಕನ್ನಡ</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-csb mw-list-item"><a href="https://csb.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%ABst_(pism%C3%B2)" title="Lëst (pismò) – Kashubian" lang="csb" hreflang="csb" data-title="Lëst (pismò)" data-language-autonym="Kaszëbsczi" data-language-local-name="Kashubian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Kaszëbsczi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-kk mw-list-item"><a href="https://kk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B0%D1%82" title="Хат – Kazakh" lang="kk" hreflang="kk" data-title="Хат" data-language-autonym="Қазақша" data-language-local-name="Kazakh" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Қазақша</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sw mw-list-item"><a href="https://sw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barua" title="Barua – Swahili" lang="sw" hreflang="sw" data-title="Barua" data-language-autonym="Kiswahili" data-language-local-name="Swahili" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Kiswahili</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ku mw-list-item"><a href="https://ku.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name" title="Name – Kurdish" lang="ku" hreflang="ku" data-title="Name" data-language-autonym="Kurdî" data-language-local-name="Kurdish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Kurdî</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ky mw-list-item"><a href="https://ky.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82" title="Кат – Kyrgyz" lang="ky" hreflang="ky" data-title="Кат" data-language-autonym="Кыргызча" data-language-local-name="Kyrgyz" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Кыргызча</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-la mw-list-item"><a href="https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistula" title="Epistula – Latin" lang="la" hreflang="la" data-title="Epistula" data-language-autonym="Latina" data-language-local-name="Latin" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Latina</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-lv mw-list-item"><a href="https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C4%93stule" title="Vēstule – Latvian" lang="lv" hreflang="lv" data-title="Vēstule" data-language-autonym="Latviešu" data-language-local-name="Latvian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Latviešu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-lt mw-list-item"><a href="https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai%C5%A1kas" title="Laiškas – Lithuanian" lang="lt" hreflang="lt" data-title="Laiškas" data-language-autonym="Lietuvių" data-language-local-name="Lithuanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Lietuvių</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ml mw-list-item"><a href="https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%95%E0%B4%A4%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%A4%E0%B5%8D" title="കത്ത് – Malayalam" lang="ml" hreflang="ml" data-title="കത്ത്" data-language-autonym="മലയാളം" data-language-local-name="Malayalam" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>മലയാളം</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-mr mw-list-item"><a href="https://mr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0" title="पत्र – Marathi" lang="mr" hreflang="mr" data-title="पत्र" data-language-autonym="मराठी" data-language-local-name="Marathi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>मराठी</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ms mw-list-item"><a href="https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surat" title="Surat – Malay" lang="ms" hreflang="ms" data-title="Surat" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Melayu" data-language-local-name="Malay" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Melayu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cdo mw-list-item"><a href="https://cdo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%C4%95" title="Piĕ – Mindong" lang="cdo" hreflang="cdo" data-title="Piĕ" data-language-autonym="閩東語 / Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄" data-language-local-name="Mindong" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>閩東語 / Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-mn mw-list-item"><a href="https://mn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BB" title="Захидал – Mongolian" lang="mn" hreflang="mn" data-title="Захидал" data-language-autonym="Монгол" data-language-local-name="Mongolian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Монгол</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brief" title="Brief – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Brief" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ne mw-list-item"><a href="https://ne.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A0%E0%A5%80" title="चिठी – Nepali" lang="ne" hreflang="ne" data-title="चिठी" data-language-autonym="नेपाली" data-language-local-name="Nepali" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>नेपाली</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%8B%E7%B4%99" title="手紙 – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="手紙" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-no mw-list-item"><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brev" title="Brev – Norwegian Bokmål" lang="nb" hreflang="nb" data-title="Brev" data-language-autonym="Norsk bokmål" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Bokmål" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk bokmål</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nn mw-list-item"><a href="https://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brev" title="Brev – Norwegian Nynorsk" lang="nn" hreflang="nn" data-title="Brev" data-language-autonym="Norsk nynorsk" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Nynorsk" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk nynorsk</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-om mw-list-item"><a href="https://om.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xalayaa" title="Xalayaa – Oromo" lang="om" hreflang="om" data-title="Xalayaa" data-language-autonym="Oromoo" data-language-local-name="Oromo" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Oromoo</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uz mw-list-item"><a href="https://uz.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maktub" title="Maktub – Uzbek" lang="uz" hreflang="uz" data-title="Maktub" data-language-autonym="Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча" data-language-local-name="Uzbek" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nds mw-list-item"><a href="https://nds.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breef" title="Breef – Low German" lang="nds" hreflang="nds" data-title="Breef" data-language-autonym="Plattdüütsch" data-language-local-name="Low German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Plattdüütsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/List" title="List – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="List" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta" title="Carta – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Carta" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ro mw-list-item"><a href="https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrisoare" title="Scrisoare – Romanian" lang="ro" hreflang="ro" data-title="Scrisoare" data-language-autonym="Română" data-language-local-name="Romanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Română</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-qu mw-list-item"><a href="https://qu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaski_qillqa" title="Chaski qillqa – Quechua" lang="qu" hreflang="qu" data-title="Chaski qillqa" data-language-autonym="Runa Simi" data-language-local-name="Quechua" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Runa Simi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%BE" title="Письмо – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Письмо" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-scn mw-list-item"><a href="https://scn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littra_(cumunicazzioni)" title="Littra (cumunicazzioni) – Sicilian" lang="scn" hreflang="scn" data-title="Littra (cumunicazzioni)" data-language-autonym="Sicilianu" data-language-local-name="Sicilian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Sicilianu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_(paper)" title="Letter (paper) – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="Letter (paper)" data-language-autonym="Simple English" data-language-local-name="Simple English" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Simple English</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sk mw-list-item"><a href="https://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_(spr%C3%A1va)" title="List (správa) – Slovak" lang="sk" hreflang="sk" data-title="List (správa)" data-language-autonym="Slovenčina" data-language-local-name="Slovak" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Slovenčina</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-so mw-list-item"><a href="https://so.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warqad_(fariin)" title="Warqad (fariin) – Somali" lang="so" hreflang="so" data-title="Warqad (fariin)" data-language-autonym="Soomaaliga" data-language-local-name="Somali" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Soomaaliga</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ckb mw-list-item"><a href="https://ckb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%DB%95" title="نامە – Central Kurdish" lang="ckb" hreflang="ckb" data-title="نامە" data-language-autonym="کوردی" data-language-local-name="Central Kurdish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>کوردی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sr mw-list-item"><a href="https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%88%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE_%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%BE" title="Поштанско писмо – Serbian" lang="sr" hreflang="sr" data-title="Поштанско писмо" data-language-autonym="Српски / srpski" data-language-local-name="Serbian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Српски / srpski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fi mw-list-item"><a href="https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirje" title="Kirje – Finnish" lang="fi" hreflang="fi" data-title="Kirje" data-language-autonym="Suomi" data-language-local-name="Finnish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Suomi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sv mw-list-item"><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brev" title="Brev – Swedish" lang="sv" hreflang="sv" data-title="Brev" data-language-autonym="Svenska" data-language-local-name="Swedish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Svenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tl mw-list-item"><a href="https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liham" title="Liham – Tagalog" lang="tl" hreflang="tl" data-title="Liham" data-language-autonym="Tagalog" data-language-local-name="Tagalog" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tagalog</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ta mw-list-item"><a href="https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%9F%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D" title="கடிதம் – Tamil" lang="ta" hreflang="ta" data-title="கடிதம்" data-language-autonym="தமிழ்" data-language-local-name="Tamil" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>தமிழ்</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tt mw-list-item"><a href="https://tt.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B0%D1%82" title="Хат – Tatar" lang="tt" hreflang="tt" data-title="Хат" data-language-autonym="Татарча / tatarça" data-language-local-name="Tatar" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Татарча / tatarça</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-te mw-list-item"><a href="https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B0%B2%E0%B1%87%E0%B0%96" title="లేఖ – Telugu" lang="te" hreflang="te" data-title="లేఖ" data-language-autonym="తెలుగు" data-language-local-name="Telugu" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>తెలుగు</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-th mw-list-item"><a href="https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2" title="จดหมาย – Thai" lang="th" hreflang="th" data-title="จดหมาย" data-language-autonym="ไทย" data-language-local-name="Thai" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ไทย</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tg mw-list-item"><a href="https://tg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0" title="Нома – Tajik" lang="tg" hreflang="tg" data-title="Нома" data-language-autonym="Тоҷикӣ" data-language-local-name="Tajik" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Тоҷикӣ</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mektup" title="Mektup – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="Mektup" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Türkçe</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-kcg mw-list-item"><a href="https://kcg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wusika" title="Wusika – Tyap" lang="kcg" hreflang="kcg" data-title="Wusika" data-language-autonym="Tyap" data-language-local-name="Tyap" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tyap</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82_(%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%88%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5_%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B4%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8F)" title="Лист (поштове відправлення) – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Лист (поштове відправлення)" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ur mw-list-item"><a href="https://ur.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AE%D8%B7_(%D9%85%DA%A9%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A8)" title="خط (مکتوب) – Urdu" lang="ur" hreflang="ur" data-title="خط (مکتوب)" data-language-autonym="اردو" data-language-local-name="Urdu" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>اردو</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-vi mw-list-item"><a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C6%B0" title="Thư – Vietnamese" lang="vi" hreflang="vi" data-title="Thư" data-language-autonym="Tiếng Việt" data-language-local-name="Vietnamese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tiếng Việt</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-wa mw-list-item"><a href="https://wa.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lete_(po-z_evoy%C3%AE)" title="Lete (po-z evoyî) – Walloon" lang="wa" hreflang="wa" data-title="Lete (po-z evoyî)" data-language-autonym="Walon" data-language-local-name="Walloon" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Walon</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-classical mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh-classical.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%BA%E7%89%98" title="尺牘 – Literary Chinese" lang="lzh" hreflang="lzh" data-title="尺牘" data-language-autonym="文言" data-language-local-name="Literary Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>文言</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-wuu mw-list-item"><a href="https://wuu.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%A6%E4%BF%A1" title="书信 – Wu" lang="wuu" hreflang="wuu" data-title="书信" data-language-autonym="吴语" data-language-local-name="Wu" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>吴语</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-yi mw-list-item"><a href="https://yi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%95%D7%95" title="בריוו – Yiddish" lang="yi" hreflang="yi" data-title="בריוו" data-language-autonym="ייִדיש" data-language-local-name="Yiddish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ייִדיש</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-yue mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BF%A1" title="信 – Cantonese" lang="yue" hreflang="yue" data-title="信" data-language-autonym="粵語" data-language-local-name="Cantonese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>粵語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%A6%E4%BF%A1" title="书信 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="书信" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>中文</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-iba mw-list-item"><a href="https://iba.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surat" title="Surat – Iban" lang="iba" hreflang="iba" data-title="Surat" data-language-autonym="Jaku Iban" data-language-local-name="Iban" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Jaku Iban</span></a></li> </ul> <div class="after-portlet after-portlet-lang"><span class="wb-langlinks-edit wb-langlinks-link"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q133492#sitelinks-wikipedia" title="Edit interlanguage links" class="wbc-editpage">Edit links</a></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </header> 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searchaux" style="display:none">Written message from one to another</div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:James_Campbell_-_News_from_My_Lad_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/James_Campbell_-_News_from_My_Lad_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/220px-James_Campbell_-_News_from_My_Lad_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="243" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/James_Campbell_-_News_from_My_Lad_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/330px-James_Campbell_-_News_from_My_Lad_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/James_Campbell_-_News_from_My_Lad_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/440px-James_Campbell_-_News_from_My_Lad_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2586" data-file-height="2858" /></a><figcaption><i>News from My Lad</i> by <a href="/wiki/James_Campbell_(artist)" title="James Campbell (artist)">James Campbell</a>, 1828–1893 (<a href="/wiki/Walker_Art_Gallery" title="Walker Art Gallery">Walker Art Gallery</a>)</figcaption></figure> <p>A <b>letter</b> is a written message conveyed from one person (or group of people) to another through a medium.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Something <a href="/wiki/Epistle" title="Epistle">epistolary</a> means that it is a form of letter writing. The term usually excludes written material intended to be read in its original form by large numbers of people, such as newspapers and placards, although even these may include material in the form of an "<a href="/wiki/Open_letter" title="Open letter">open letter</a>". The typical form of a letter for many centuries, and the archetypal <a href="/wiki/Concept" title="Concept">concept</a> even today, is a sheet (or several sheets) of paper that is sent to a correspondent through a <a href="/wiki/Mail" title="Mail">postal system</a>. A letter can be <a href="/wiki/Register_(sociolinguistics)" title="Register (sociolinguistics)">formal or informal</a>, depending on its audience and purpose. Besides being a means of communication and a store of information, letter writing has played a role in the reproduction of writing as an art throughout history.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Letters have been sent since <a href="/wiki/Ancient_history" title="Ancient history">antiquity</a> and are mentioned in the <i><a href="/wiki/Iliad" title="Iliad">Iliad</a></i>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Historians <a href="/wiki/Herodotus" title="Herodotus">Herodotus</a> and <a href="/wiki/Thucydides" title="Thucydides">Thucydides</a> mention and use letters in their writings.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History_of_letter_writing">History of letter writing</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: History of letter writing"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Letter_Darius_Gadatas_Louvre_Ma2934.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Letter_Darius_Gadatas_Louvre_Ma2934.jpg/220px-Letter_Darius_Gadatas_Louvre_Ma2934.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="333" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Letter_Darius_Gadatas_Louvre_Ma2934.jpg/330px-Letter_Darius_Gadatas_Louvre_Ma2934.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Letter_Darius_Gadatas_Louvre_Ma2934.jpg/440px-Letter_Darius_Gadatas_Louvre_Ma2934.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1850" data-file-height="2800" /></a><figcaption>Letter of <a href="/wiki/Darius_the_Great" title="Darius the Great">Darius the Great</a> to Gadatas, circa 500 BC.</figcaption></figure> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Einstein_Szilard_p1.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Einstein_Szilard_p1.jpg/220px-Einstein_Szilard_p1.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="285" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Einstein_Szilard_p1.jpg/330px-Einstein_Szilard_p1.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Einstein_Szilard_p1.jpg/440px-Einstein_Szilard_p1.jpg 2x" data-file-width="765" data-file-height="991" /></a><figcaption>The famous <a href="/wiki/Einstein_letter" class="mw-redirect" title="Einstein letter">Einstein letter</a> from <a href="/wiki/Edward_Teller" title="Edward Teller">Edward Teller</a> and <a href="/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd" class="mw-redirect" title="Leó Szilárd">Leó Szilárd</a> to US President <a href="/wiki/Franklin_Roosevelt" class="mw-redirect" title="Franklin Roosevelt">Franklin Roosevelt</a> suggesting an <a href="/wiki/Atomic_bomb" class="mw-redirect" title="Atomic bomb">atomic bomb</a> project. <a href="/wiki/File:Einstein_Szilard_p2.jpg" title="File:Einstein Szilard p2.jpg">Click here for page 2.</a></figcaption></figure> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Kate_Hepburn_Letter.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Kate_Hepburn_Letter.jpg/220px-Kate_Hepburn_Letter.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="291" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Kate_Hepburn_Letter.jpg/330px-Kate_Hepburn_Letter.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Kate_Hepburn_Letter.jpg 2x" data-file-width="378" data-file-height="500" /></a><figcaption>A thank-you letter from <a href="/wiki/Katharine_Hepburn" title="Katharine Hepburn">Katharine Hepburn</a> to <a href="/wiki/Alan_Light" title="Alan Light">Alan Light</a> thanking him for his condolences in regards of <a href="/wiki/Cary_Grant" title="Cary Grant">Cary Grant</a>'s death</figcaption></figure> <p>Historically, letters have existed from <a href="/wiki/History_of_India" title="History of India">ancient India</a>, <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Egypt" title="Ancient Egypt">ancient Egypt</a> and <a href="/wiki/Sumer" title="Sumer">Sumer</a>, through <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Rome" title="Ancient Rome">Rome</a>, <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Greece" title="Ancient Greece">Greece</a> and <a href="/wiki/History_of_China#Ancient_China" title="History of China">China</a>, up to the present day. During the 17th and 18th centuries, letters were used to self-educate.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify" title="Wikipedia:Please clarify"><span title="The text near this tag may need clarification or removal of jargon. (September 2020)">clarification needed</span></a></i>]</sup> The main purposes of letters were to send information, news and greetings. For some, letters were a way to practice critical reading, self-expressive writing, polemical writing and also exchange ideas with like-minded others. For some people, letters were seen as a written performance.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify" title="Wikipedia:Please clarify"><span title="The text near this tag may need clarification or removal of jargon. (September 2020)">clarification needed</span></a></i>]</sup> Letters make up several of the books of the Bible. Archives of correspondence, whether for personal, diplomatic, or business reasons, serve as <a href="/wiki/Primary_source" title="Primary source">primary sources</a> for historians. At certain times, the writing of letters was thought to be an art form and a genre of literature, for instance in Byzantine <a href="/wiki/Epistolography" title="Epistolography">epistolography</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Oxf_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Oxf-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In the ancient world letters might be written on various different materials, including metal, lead, wax-coated wooden tablets, pottery fragments, animal skin, and papyrus. From <a href="/wiki/Ovid" title="Ovid">Ovid</a>, we learn that <a href="/wiki/Acontius" title="Acontius">Acontius</a> used an apple for his letter to <a href="/wiki/Cydippe" title="Cydippe">Cydippe</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> More recently, letters have mainly been written on paper: handwritten and more recently typed. </p><p>There is a wealth of letters and instructional materials (for example, <a href="/wiki/Style_guide" title="Style guide">manuals</a>, as in the medieval <a href="/wiki/Ars_dictaminis" title="Ars dictaminis">ars dictaminis</a>) on letter writing throughout history. The study of letter writing usually involves both the study of <a href="/wiki/Rhetoric" title="Rhetoric">rhetoric</a> and <a href="/wiki/Grammar" title="Grammar">grammar</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Historians of the medieval period often study family letter collections, which gather the personal and business correspondence of a group of related people and shed light on their daily life. The <a href="/wiki/Paston_Letters" title="Paston Letters">Paston Letters</a> (1425 – 1520 CE) are widely studied for insight into life in Britain during the <a href="/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses" title="Wars of the Roses">Wars of the Roses</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-ELW-medievalBritain_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ELW-medievalBritain-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Other major medieval family letter collections include the <a href="/wiki/Stonor_Letters" title="Stonor Letters">Stonor Letters</a> (1420 – 1483 CE), <a href="/w/index.php?title=Plumpton_letters&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Plumpton letters (page does not exist)">Plumpton letters</a> (1416 – 1552 CE), and <a href="/wiki/Cely_Letters" title="Cely Letters">Cely Letters</a> (1472-1488 CE).<sup id="cite_ref-ELW-medievalBritain_7-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ELW-medievalBritain-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Letters were a chief form of communication, in both personal and business communications, for many centuries before <a href="/wiki/Telegraphy" title="Telegraphy">telegraphy</a>, <a href="/wiki/Telephony" title="Telephony">telephony</a>, and Internet communications reduced their primacy. Even in times and places where literacy was lower, illiterate people could pay literate ones to write letters to, and to read letters from, distant correspondents. Even in the era of telegrams and telephones, letters remained quite important until <a href="/wiki/Fax" title="Fax">fax</a> and email further eroded their primacy, especially since the turn of the 21st century. As <a href="/wiki/Communication_technology" class="mw-redirect" title="Communication technology">communication technology</a> has developed in recent history, posted letters on paper have become less important as a routine form of communication. For example, the development of the <a href="/wiki/Telegraph" class="mw-redirect" title="Telegraph">telegraph</a> drastically shortened the time taken to send a communication, by sending it between distant points as an electrical signal. At the telegraph office closest to the destination, the signal was converted back into writing on paper and delivered to the recipient. The next step was the <a href="/wiki/Telex" title="Telex">telex</a> which avoided the need for local delivery. Then followed the fax (facsimile) machine: a letter could be transferred from the sender to the receiver through the telephone network as an image. These technologies did not displace physical letters as the primary route for communication; however today, the Internet, by means of email, plays the main role in written communications, together with text messages; however, these email communications are not generally referred to as letters but rather as e-mail (or email) messages, messages or simply emails or e-mails, with the term "letter" generally being reserved for communications on paper. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Letters_as_historical_source_material">Letters as historical source material</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Letters as historical source material"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Due to the timelessness and universality of letter writing, <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/extant#Adjective" class="extiw" title="wikt:extant">extant</a> letters from earlier eras constitute an important category of <a href="/wiki/Source_text" title="Source text">source material</a> in <a href="/wiki/Historiography" title="Historiography">historiography</a> (the methodology of historians). </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Importance_of_letters_in_the_18th_century">Importance of letters in the 18th century</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Importance of letters in the 18th century"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>During the 18th century, called the "Great Age of Letter Writing," the <a href="/wiki/Epistolary_novel" title="Epistolary novel">epistolary novel</a> became a hugely popular genre and came from the format of letters. The novel also debuted in the 17th century with <i><a href="/wiki/Love-Letters_Between_a_Nobleman_and_His_Sister" title="Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister">Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister</a></i>. Letter writers used this to communicate and explore their identity and daily life at the time. As a medium of writing that lies ambiguously between the public and private worlds, letters provide an appealing peek into other people's thoughts, feelings, and lives. During this historical period, publishing these "private" letters so they could build and preserve literary prominence became common for the first time. Just as social media streams now allow modern celebrities to present versions of their intimate lives for the public to see and read all about, so did early modern and 18th-century figures carefully build themselves in their letters for audiences to be excited to read these works of literature. In the 18th century, readers frequently associated personal letters with the ideals of honesty and truth. Writing in the 18th-century was a rough process that required a lot of materials, many of which were difficult or expensive to get. Researchers interested in the links and connections between migrants, settlers, and refugees have increasingly concentrated on letters and their purposes. Surprisingly, academics only began examining letters as artifacts in the late twentieth century; most studies continue to focus on the national course of epistolary novels.<sup id="cite_ref-:1_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Letters also offer information on changing conceptions of privacy, secrecy, and trust during a period of widespread censorship, especially in war. Lastly, study on letter writing and mail services culture exposes the economic and technical roots of letter writing, as well as how links required resources ranging from writing tables and ink to postal employees and ships to carry letters over the world. A lot of letters that were written in this time also showed up in a popular magazine called <i><a href="/wiki/The_Gentleman%27s_Magazine" title="The Gentleman's Magazine">The Gentleman's Magazine</a></i>. People were also charged for postage during this time. They either had to pay before or during transit. Writers took great caution in their number of pages so they did not have to pay so much. These writers were considered very clever in their way to avoid the overcharge. Letter writing also became a really important pastime for some. Women were among these people to write letters and express themselves. A lot of female friendships were formed from women being encouraged to write letters. In fact, the most popular character who wrote in this period was named <a href="/wiki/Clarissa_(novel)" title="Clarissa (novel)">Clarissa Harlowe</a>. This was also a chance for women to express their intelligence. They used letters also to separate themselves from their husbands and have their own voice to enter more into society. Even when the epistolary novel lost its popularity, people did not stop writing letters. It gave everyone a voice when they did not think they had one and it is incredibly important to people to have that, especially the women of this time.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/Alexander_Pope" title="Alexander Pope">Alexander Pope</a> was the first English writer to publish from his own letters during his lifetime, putting out a new example for authors and other important people's epistolary works. Pope recognized that writings may reflect both personal religious devotion and cleverness. Pope's works are lacking in formality and informality. He had written his letters all about his life and what he did. Pope also wrote about his friends and the health and work of them. "All the pleasure of using familiar letters is to give us the assurance of a friend's welfare," Pope said. He had also taken to describing himself as "a mortal enemy and despiser of what they call fine letters." There was a letter addressed to Pope's father that ended up being used as writing paper for the <i><a href="/wiki/Iliad" title="Iliad">Iliad</a></i>. When Alexander Pope's letters were published, they were widely read by a number of people.<sup id="cite_ref-:1_8-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Comparison_with_electronic_mail">Comparison with electronic mail</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Comparison with electronic mail"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: <a href="/wiki/Email" title="Email">Email</a></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_-_The_Secret_Message.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_-_The_Secret_Message.jpg/220px-Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_-_The_Secret_Message.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="264" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_-_The_Secret_Message.jpg/330px-Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_-_The_Secret_Message.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_-_The_Secret_Message.jpg/440px-Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher_-_The_Secret_Message.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2581" data-file-height="3100" /></a><figcaption><a href="/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Boucher" title="François Boucher">François Boucher</a> – <i>The Secret Message</i>, 1767 (<a href="/wiki/Herzog_Anton_Ulrich_Museum" title="Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum">Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum</a>)</figcaption></figure> <p>Despite email's widespread use, letters are still popular, particularly in business and for official communications. At the same time, many "letters" are sent in electronic form. The following advantages of paper letters over e-mails and text messages are put forward: </p> <ul><li>No special device is needed to receive a letter, just a postal address, and the letter can be read immediately on receipt.</li> <li>An e-mail may sit in a recipient's inbox for some time before being read, or may not be read at all; a paper letter is more likely to receive prompt attention once it arrives.</li> <li>An advertising mailing can reach every address in a particular area.</li> <li>A letter provides an immediate, and in principle permanent, physical record of communication, without the need for printing. Letters, especially those with a signature and/or on an organization's own notepaper, are more difficult to falsify than is an email, and thus provide much better evidence of the contents of the communication.</li> <li>A letter in the sender's own handwriting is more personal than an e-mail and shows that the sender has taken the effort to write it.</li> <li>If required, small physical objects can be enclosed in the envelope with the letter.</li> <li>Letters are unable to transmit <a href="/wiki/Malware" title="Malware">malware</a> or other harmful files that can be transmitted by e-mail.</li> <li>E-mails are insecure and may be intercepted en route. For this reason, letters are often preferred for confidential correspondence.</li> <li>Letter writing leads to the mastery of the technique of good writing.</li> <li>Letter writing can provide an extension of the face-to-face therapeutic encounter.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify" title="Wikipedia:Please clarify"><span title="The text near this tag may need clarification or removal of jargon. (September 2020)">clarification needed</span></a></i>]</sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>Since at least a small fee is required, sending a large number of irrelevant letters becomes more expensive (and therefore less likely) than e-mail (spam).</li></ul> <p>The following advantages are put forward for e-mails and text messages over traditional letters: </p> <ul><li>They can be transmitted instantly.</li> <li>They can be sent to a number of recipients in one operation.</li> <li>They do not require a postage fee.</li> <li>They do not require materials such as paper and ink.</li> <li>Often an e-mail would require a less formal style than a letter to the same recipient, and thus may take less time to write. It is also easier to make amendments to a draft than it is with a handwritten letter.</li> <li>E-mails may be composed using spell checkers and other devices, and thus may conceal the ignorance (inability to spell or compose prose etc.) of the sender.</li> <li>During an epidemic, e-mails cannot transmit diseases.</li> <li>Emails do not take up physical space and cannot be damaged in a natural disaster.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Delivery_process">Delivery process</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Delivery process"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Mail" title="Mail">Mail</a></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png/330px-20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png" decoding="async" width="330" height="278" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png/495px-20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png/660px-20160728MessageInBottleComposite.png 2x" data-file-width="1821" data-file-height="1532" /></a><figcaption> An unconventional delivery method is shown by this <a href="/wiki/Message_in_a_bottle" title="Message in a bottle">message in a bottle</a>. This bottle and its contents (sample postcard and insert shown above) were launched in 1959 by the <a href="/wiki/United_States_Coast_and_Geodetic_Survey" title="United States Coast and Geodetic Survey">United States Coast and Geodetic Survey</a> and were found in 2013.<sup id="cite_ref-NEFSC20140314_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NEFSC20140314-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></figcaption></figure> <p>Here is how a letter gets from the sender to the recipient: </p> <ol><li>Sender composes and writes letter and may fold the letter so that it fits in an envelope. For bulk mailings, a <a href="/wiki/Folding_machine" title="Folding machine">folding machine</a> may be employed.</li> <li>Sender places the letter in an <a href="/wiki/Envelope" title="Envelope">envelope</a> on which the recipient's address is written on the front of the envelope, or often is visible through a transparent window of the envelope. Sender ensures that the recipient's address includes the ZIP or Postal Code (if applicable) and historically often included their return address on the envelope.</li> <li>For small volume private letters, the sender buys a postage stamp and attaches it to the top right corner on the front of the envelope. (For most commercial letters, postage stamps are not used: a <a href="/wiki/Postage_meter" title="Postage meter">franking machine</a> or other methods are used to pay for postage.)</li> <li>Sender puts the letter in a postbox.</li> <li>The national postal service of the sender's country (e.g. <a href="/wiki/Royal_Mail" title="Royal Mail">Royal Mail</a>, UK; <a href="/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service" title="United States Postal Service">USPS</a>, United States; <a href="/wiki/Australia_Post" title="Australia Post">Australia Post</a> in Australia; or <a href="/wiki/Canada_Post" title="Canada Post">Canada Post</a> in Canada) empties the postbox and transports all the contents to the local sorting office.</li> <li>The sorting office then sorts each letter by address and postcode and sends the letters destined for a particular area to that area's local sorting office (sometimes called a delivery office). Letters addressed to a different region may go through more than one stage of transmission and sorting.</li> <li>The local delivery personnel collect the letters from the delivery office and deliver them to the proper addresses. In some areas, recipients may need to collect the letters from the local office.</li></ol> <p>This process, depending on how far the sender is from the recipient, can take anywhere from a day to 3–4 weeks. International mail is sent via <a href="/wiki/Trains" class="mw-redirect" title="Trains">trains</a> and airplanes to other countries. </p><p>In 2008, Janet Barrett in the UK received an <a href="/wiki/RSVP" title="RSVP">RSVP</a> to a party invitation addressed to 'Percy Bateman', from 'Buffy', allegedly originally posted on 29 November 1919. It had taken 89 years to be delivered by the Royal Mail.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> However, Royal Mail denied this, saying that it would be impossible for a letter to have remained in their system for so long, as checks are carried out regularly. Instead, the letter dated 1919 may have "been a collector's item which was being sent in another envelope and somehow came free of the outer packaging".<sup id="cite_ref-tele1_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-tele1-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Forms_of_letters">Forms of letters</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Forms of letters"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The forms (conformations) of letters have usually followed traditional norms of the times and places where correspondence took place. Aspects such as where to place the elements (<a href="/wiki/Salutation" title="Salutation">salutation</a>, body of letter, <a href="/wiki/Valediction" title="Valediction">valediction</a>/closing, sender's address, recipient's address, date, and so on) were somewhat standardized albeit also usually flexible in practice. The form often varied by <a href="#Kinds_of_letters">kind of letter</a>. For any kind, though, factors of cost—such as that each sheet/leaf of paper cost money to buy and to post, and the fact of <a href="/wiki/Mail#Payment" title="Mail">who paid for the posting (sender or recipient)</a>—placed constraints on the forms of letters that varied from negligible in some times and places to crucial in others. These factors of cost drove norms on whether to write on both sides of the leaf, whether to cross the leaf with lines written in both directions (horizontally and vertically), whether to allow margins and how big or small to make them, how much to <a href="/wiki/Abbreviation" title="Abbreviation">abbreviate</a> to save space, and whether to have a separate envelope and thus how to fold the letter and where on the leaf to put the addresses. </p><p>Business encyclopedias and textbooks of the 19th and 20th centuries show that businesspeople of those eras sometimes took the standardization of the forms of <a href="/wiki/Business_letter" title="Business letter">business letters</a> to extremes. <a href="/wiki/Copy_typist" title="Copy typist">Typists</a> were required to follow dozens or hundreds of rules about element placement and sizing, some of them with rather arbitrary and even counterproductive (wastefully expensive) strictness. However, the effort to standardize (on where to put the information and how to represent it) did have various valid motivations, as in some respects it presaged the concept of <a href="/wiki/Data_normalization" class="mw-redirect" title="Data normalization">data normalization</a>, helping with the extensive manual indexing, cataloguing, and filing that characterized the <a href="/wiki/Clerk" title="Clerk">clerking</a> duties of the era. </p><p>Over the centuries, a lexicon of abbreviations, metonymic short forms, and conventional valedictions developed for frequent use in letters. For example, "yours of the 12th <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/instant#Etymology_2" class="extiw" title="wikt:instant">inst.</a>" meant "your letter of the 12th of this month"; "do" meant "<a href="/wiki/Ditto_mark" title="Ditto mark">ditto</a>"; and forms like "Yr Obdt Srvt" for "Your Obedient Servant" were common. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Kinds_of_letters">Kinds of letters</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Kinds of letters"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Betty_Bryant_1941_C19487_0013.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Betty_Bryant_1941_C19487_0013.jpg/220px-Betty_Bryant_1941_C19487_0013.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="165" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Betty_Bryant_1941_C19487_0013.jpg/330px-Betty_Bryant_1941_C19487_0013.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Betty_Bryant_1941_C19487_0013.jpg/440px-Betty_Bryant_1941_C19487_0013.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1024" data-file-height="769" /></a><figcaption>Australian actress <a href="/wiki/Betty_Bryant" title="Betty Bryant">Betty Bryant</a> reading <a href="/wiki/Fan_mail" title="Fan mail">fan mail</a></figcaption></figure> <p>There are a number of different types of letter: </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1184024115">.mw-parser-output .div-col{margin-top:0.3em;column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .div-col-small{font-size:90%}.mw-parser-output .div-col-rules{column-rule:1px solid #aaa}.mw-parser-output .div-col dl,.mw-parser-output .div-col ol,.mw-parser-output .div-col ul{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .div-col li,.mw-parser-output .div-col dd{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}</style><div class="div-col" style="column-width: 15em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Audio_letter" title="Audio letter">Audio letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Business_letter" title="Business letter">Business letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cease_and_desist" title="Cease and desist">Cease and desist letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Chain_letter" title="Chain letter">Chain letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cover_letter" title="Cover letter">Cover letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Crossed_letter" title="Crossed letter">Crossed letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dear_John_letter" title="Dear John letter">Dear John letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epistle" title="Epistle">Epistle</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fan_mail" title="Fan mail">Fan mail</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Form_letter" title="Form letter">Form letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hate_mail" title="Hate mail">Hate mail</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hybrid_mail" title="Hybrid mail">Hybrid mail</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_of_credence" title="Letter of credence">Letter of credence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_of_intent" title="Letter of intent">Letter of intent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_of_introduction" title="Letter of introduction">Letter of introduction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_of_marque" title="Letter of marque">Letter of marque</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_of_recommendation" title="Letter of recommendation">Letter of recommendation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_of_resignation" title="Letter of resignation">Letter of resignation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_of_thanks" title="Letter of thanks">Letter of thanks</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_to_the_editor" title="Letter to the editor">Letter to the editor</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letters_patent" title="Letters patent">Letters patent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Love_letter" title="Love letter">Love letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/National_Letter_of_Intent" title="National Letter of Intent">National Letter of Intent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open_letter" title="Open letter">Open letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Poison_pen_letter" title="Poison pen letter">Poison pen letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Query_letter" title="Query letter">Query letter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sales_letter" title="Sales letter">Sales letter</a></li></ul></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Security_methods">Security methods</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Security methods"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Cryptography" title="Cryptography">Cryptography</a> (secret writing) sometimes played a role in letters in centuries past, as correspondents would use previously agreed <a href="/wiki/Code" title="Code">code</a> to try to shield the <a href="/wiki/Plaintext" title="Plaintext">plaintext</a> from the comprehension of prying eyes during the letter's transit. This could be done in business letters to lessen <a href="/wiki/Industrial_espionage" title="Industrial espionage">spying by competitors on prices and methods</a> and in personal letters to try to evade <a href="/wiki/Postal_censorship" title="Postal censorship">postal censorship</a> (either of <a href="/wiki/Censorship#State_secrets_and_prevention_of_attention" title="Censorship">wartime censors</a> or of peacetime <a href="/wiki/Political_censorship" title="Political censorship">authoritarian censors</a>) or the gossip of townsfolk. It could be in either cryptic form (for example, "AEDFX GHSTR HTFXV") or in deceptively readable form (for example, "the dog will run at sunset unless the rains come"). By the standards of modern digital applied cryptography, the security was often not especially high (that is, the <a href="/wiki/Cryptanalysis" title="Cryptanalysis">codebreaking</a> was not necessarily difficult), but it was usually high enough to meet the demands of the context (that is, the degree of risk, the likelihood or stakes of any codebreaking efforts, and the state of the codebreaking art in each era). </p><p>Various forms or precursors of <a href="/wiki/Tamper-evident_technology" title="Tamper-evident technology">tamper-evident technology</a> were developed over the centuries to enable the sending and receiving of letters whereby it would be evident to the recipient if anyone else had opened the letter before they received it. The principal class of these methods was <a href="/wiki/Sealing_wax" title="Sealing wax">sealing wax</a>. Another method was to apply a small thin disc of <a href="/wiki/Adhesive" title="Adhesive">adhesive</a> material known as a wafer. A more elaborate class was <a href="/wiki/Letterlocking" title="Letterlocking">letterlocking</a>, including a type called <a href="/wiki/Spiral_locking" class="mw-redirect" title="Spiral locking">spiral locking</a>, which was especially relevant to government ministers, royal courts, judicial courts, and legislators. </p><p><a href="/wiki/Envelope" title="Envelope">Envelopes</a> are available in plain types as well as types with somewhat higher <a href="/wiki/Privacy" title="Privacy">privacy</a> protection in which a pattern of ink is printed on the inner side, making it more difficult for anyone trying to <a href="/wiki/Candling" title="Candling">candle</a> a sealed letter (that is, examine it <a href="/wiki/Transparency_and_translucency" title="Transparency and translucency">translucently</a> via <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/backlight#Noun" class="extiw" title="wikt:backlight">backlight</a>). Such envelopes are usually called privacy envelopes or security envelopes. Another <a href="/wiki/Word_sense" title="Word sense">sense</a> of the term <i>security envelope</i> refers to <a href="/wiki/Security_bag" title="Security bag">security bags</a>. </p><p>Diplomatic mail pouch systems are special, small, closed postal systems run by each country's <a href="/wiki/Ministry_of_foreign_affairs" title="Ministry of foreign affairs">ministry of foreign affairs</a> or department of state. A general theme of the diplomatic mail pouch is that outsiders never have physical access to it during the entire chain of custody; it never gets sent off out of sight of authorized persons, which would otherwise be the weak link in the chain where <a href="/wiki/Intelligence_agency" title="Intelligence agency">intelligence agencies</a> could surreptitiously examine it in non-evident ways. The mail pouch itself in a diplomatic mail pouch system is often a <a href="/wiki/Security_bag" title="Security bag">security bag</a> instead of merely any cloth pouch or sack. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Gallery">Gallery</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Gallery"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul class="gallery mw-gallery-packed"> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 150px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 148px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Brev_fr%C3%A5n_Mikael_Agricola_till_Nils_Bielke_1549.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="A hand-written letter (written in Swedish) from Mikael Agricola to Nils Turesson Bielke, 1549."><img alt="A hand-written letter (written in Swedish) from Mikael Agricola to Nils Turesson Bielke, 1549." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Brev_fr%C3%A5n_Mikael_Agricola_till_Nils_Bielke_1549.jpg/222px-Brev_fr%C3%A5n_Mikael_Agricola_till_Nils_Bielke_1549.jpg" decoding="async" width="148" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Brev_fr%C3%A5n_Mikael_Agricola_till_Nils_Bielke_1549.jpg/333px-Brev_fr%C3%A5n_Mikael_Agricola_till_Nils_Bielke_1549.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Brev_fr%C3%A5n_Mikael_Agricola_till_Nils_Bielke_1549.jpg/445px-Brev_fr%C3%A5n_Mikael_Agricola_till_Nils_Bielke_1549.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1485" data-file-height="1203" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">A hand-written letter (written in <a href="/wiki/Swedish_language" title="Swedish language">Swedish</a>) from <a href="/wiki/Mikael_Agricola" title="Mikael Agricola">Mikael Agricola</a> to <a href="/wiki/Nils_Turesson_Bielke" title="Nils Turesson Bielke">Nils Turesson Bielke</a>, 1549.</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 101.33333333333px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 99.333333333333px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:From_Caroline_Weston_to_Deborah_Weston;_Tuesday,_June_1,_1841%3F_p1.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="By writing both across and down, the sender of a letter could save on postage."><img alt="By writing both across and down, the sender of a letter could save on postage." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/From_Caroline_Weston_to_Deborah_Weston%3B_Tuesday%2C_June_1%2C_1841%3F_p1.jpg/149px-From_Caroline_Weston_to_Deborah_Weston%3B_Tuesday%2C_June_1%2C_1841%3F_p1.jpg" decoding="async" width="100" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/From_Caroline_Weston_to_Deborah_Weston%3B_Tuesday%2C_June_1%2C_1841%3F_p1.jpg/224px-From_Caroline_Weston_to_Deborah_Weston%3B_Tuesday%2C_June_1%2C_1841%3F_p1.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/From_Caroline_Weston_to_Deborah_Weston%3B_Tuesday%2C_June_1%2C_1841%3F_p1.jpg/299px-From_Caroline_Weston_to_Deborah_Weston%3B_Tuesday%2C_June_1%2C_1841%3F_p1.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1246" data-file-height="1500" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">By <a href="/wiki/Crossed_letter" title="Crossed letter">writing both across and down</a>, the sender of a letter could save on postage.</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 174px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 172px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Cesare_Borgia,_handwritten_letter_1.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="A hand-written letter of Cesare Borgia."><img alt="A hand-written letter of Cesare Borgia." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Cesare_Borgia%2C_handwritten_letter_1.jpg/258px-Cesare_Borgia%2C_handwritten_letter_1.jpg" decoding="async" width="172" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Cesare_Borgia%2C_handwritten_letter_1.jpg/387px-Cesare_Borgia%2C_handwritten_letter_1.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Cesare_Borgia%2C_handwritten_letter_1.jpg/516px-Cesare_Borgia%2C_handwritten_letter_1.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1212" data-file-height="846" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">A hand-written letter of <a href="/wiki/Cesare_Borgia" title="Cesare Borgia">Cesare Borgia</a>.</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 136px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 134px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Virginia_Santa_Claus.png" class="mw-file-description" title="Virginia O'Hanlon's original 1897 letter which was answered by Francis Pharcellus Church in his famous newspaper editorial "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus""><img alt="Virginia O'Hanlon's original 1897 letter which was answered by Francis Pharcellus Church in his famous newspaper editorial "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus"" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Virginia_Santa_Claus.png/201px-Virginia_Santa_Claus.png" decoding="async" width="134" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Virginia_Santa_Claus.png 1.5x" data-file-width="232" data-file-height="208" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext"><a href="/wiki/Virginia_O%27Hanlon" title="Virginia O'Hanlon">Virginia O'Hanlon</a>'s original 1897 letter which was answered by <a href="/wiki/Francis_Pharcellus_Church" title="Francis Pharcellus Church">Francis Pharcellus Church</a> in his famous newspaper editorial "<a href="/wiki/Yes_Virginia,_there_is_a_Santa_Claus" class="mw-redirect" title="Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus">Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus</a>"</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 94.666666666667px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 92.666666666667px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wish_list.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="A child's letter to Santa Claus."><img alt="A child's letter to Santa Claus." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Wish_list.jpg/139px-Wish_list.jpg" decoding="async" width="93" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Wish_list.jpg/209px-Wish_list.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Wish_list.jpg/278px-Wish_list.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2550" data-file-height="3300" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">A child's letter to <a href="/wiki/Santa_Claus" title="Santa Claus">Santa Claus</a>.</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 153.33333333333px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 151.33333333333px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Letter_from_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_to_Herbert_Greenhough_Smith.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="A letter from Arthur Conan Doyle about his 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles."><img alt="A letter from Arthur Conan Doyle about his 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Letter_from_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_to_Herbert_Greenhough_Smith.jpg/227px-Letter_from_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_to_Herbert_Greenhough_Smith.jpg" decoding="async" width="152" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Letter_from_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_to_Herbert_Greenhough_Smith.jpg/340px-Letter_from_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_to_Herbert_Greenhough_Smith.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Letter_from_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_to_Herbert_Greenhough_Smith.jpg/454px-Letter_from_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_to_Herbert_Greenhough_Smith.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2420" data-file-height="1920" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">A letter from <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle" title="Arthur Conan Doyle">Arthur Conan Doyle</a> about his 1902 novel <i><a href="/wiki/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles" title="The Hound of the Baskervilles">The Hound of the Baskervilles</a></i>.</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 94.666666666667px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 92.666666666667px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Invitation_to_Space_Needle_groundbreaking,_1961.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="An invitation letter to the ground-breaking of the Seattle Space Needle, 1961."><img alt="An invitation letter to the ground-breaking of the Seattle Space Needle, 1961." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Invitation_to_Space_Needle_groundbreaking%2C_1961.jpg/139px-Invitation_to_Space_Needle_groundbreaking%2C_1961.jpg" decoding="async" width="93" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Invitation_to_Space_Needle_groundbreaking%2C_1961.jpg/209px-Invitation_to_Space_Needle_groundbreaking%2C_1961.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Invitation_to_Space_Needle_groundbreaking%2C_1961.jpg/278px-Invitation_to_Space_Needle_groundbreaking%2C_1961.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2550" data-file-height="3300" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">An invitation letter to the ground-breaking of the Seattle <a href="/wiki/Space_Needle" title="Space Needle">Space Needle</a>, 1961.</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 93.333333333333px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 91.333333333333px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon,_1974.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="The resignation letter of U.S. president Richard Nixon, 1974."><img alt="The resignation letter of U.S. president Richard Nixon, 1974." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon%2C_1974.jpg/137px-Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon%2C_1974.jpg" decoding="async" width="92" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon%2C_1974.jpg/205px-Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon%2C_1974.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon%2C_1974.jpg/274px-Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon%2C_1974.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2398" data-file-height="3150" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">The resignation letter of U.S. president <a href="/wiki/Richard_Nixon" title="Richard Nixon">Richard Nixon</a>, 1974.</div> </li> <li class="gallerybox" style="width: 100.66666666667px"> <div class="thumb" style="width: 98.666666666667px;"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Augusto_Tominz_-_The_Letter,_1873.jpg" class="mw-file-description" title="A letter sheet. Augusto Tominz [de] - The Letter, 1873"><img alt="A letter sheet. Augusto Tominz [de] - The Letter, 1873" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Augusto_Tominz_-_The_Letter%2C_1873.jpg/148px-Augusto_Tominz_-_The_Letter%2C_1873.jpg" decoding="async" width="99" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Augusto_Tominz_-_The_Letter%2C_1873.jpg/222px-Augusto_Tominz_-_The_Letter%2C_1873.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Augusto_Tominz_-_The_Letter%2C_1873.jpg/296px-Augusto_Tominz_-_The_Letter%2C_1873.jpg 2x" data-file-width="4038" data-file-height="4902" /></a></span></div> <div class="gallerytext">A <a href="/wiki/Letter_sheet" title="Letter sheet">letter sheet</a>. <a href="/w/index.php?title=Augusto_Tominz&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Augusto Tominz (page does not exist)">Augusto Tominz</a><span class="noprint" style="font-size:85%; font-style: normal;"> [<a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Tominz" class="extiw" title="de:Augusto Tominz">de</a>]</span> - <i>The Letter</i>, 1873</div> </li> </ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1184024115"><div class="div-col" style="column-width: 15em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Address_(geography)" class="mw-redirect" title="Address (geography)">Address</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ars_dictaminis" title="Ars dictaminis">Ars dictaminis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Avis_de_r%C3%A9ception" title="Avis de réception">Avis de réception</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/De_conscribendis_epistolis" title="De conscribendis epistolis">De conscribendis epistolis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Envelope" title="Envelope">Envelope</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_box" title="Letter box">Letter box</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Letter_collection" title="Letter collection">Letter collection</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mail" title="Mail">Mail</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Manuscript" title="Manuscript">Manuscript</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Message_in_a_bottle" title="Message in a bottle">Message in a bottle</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pen_pal" title="Pen pal">Pen pal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proof_of_delivery" title="Proof of delivery">Proof of delivery</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Return_receipt" title="Return receipt">Return receipt</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Salutation" title="Salutation">Salutation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Secrecy_of_correspondence" title="Secrecy of correspondence">Secrecy of correspondence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mail#Etymology" title="Mail">Snail mail</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Valediction" title="Valediction">Valediction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Victorian_letter_writing_guides" title="Victorian letter writing guides">Victorian letter writing guides</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Virtual_mailbox" title="Virtual mailbox">Virtual mailbox</a></li></ul></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-:0-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:0_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFBlakeBly1993" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Gary_Blake" title="Gary Blake">Blake, Gary</a>; <a href="/wiki/Robert_W._Bly" title="Robert W. Bly">Bly, Robert W.</a> (1993). <i>The Elements of Technical Writing</i>. <a href="/wiki/Macmillan_Publishers_(United_States)" class="mw-redirect" title="Macmillan Publishers (United States)">Macmillan Publishers</a>. p. 125. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0020130856" title="Special:BookSources/0020130856"><bdi>0020130856</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Elements+of+Technical+Writing&rft.pages=125&rft.pub=Macmillan+Publishers&rft.date=1993&rft.isbn=0020130856&rft.aulast=Blake&rft.aufirst=Gary&rft.au=Bly%2C+Robert+W.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Homer, <i>Iliad</i>, 6. 167–70.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFEbbeler2009" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1">Ebbeler, J. (2009). "Chapter 19: Tradition, Innovation, and Epistolary Mores". In Rousseau, P. (ed.). <i>A Companion to Late Antiquity</i>. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 270. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4051-1980-1" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-4051-1980-1"><bdi>978-1-4051-1980-1</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Chapter+19%3A+Tradition%2C+Innovation%2C+and+Epistolary+Mores&rft.btitle=A+Companion+to+Late+Antiquity&rft.place=Chichester&rft.pages=270&rft.pub=Wiley-Blackwell&rft.date=2009&rft.isbn=978-1-4051-1980-1&rft.aulast=Ebbeler&rft.aufirst=J.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Oxf-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Oxf_4-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">"Epistolography" in <i><a href="/wiki/Oxford_Dictionary_of_Byzantium" title="Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium">The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium</a></i>, <a href="/wiki/Oxford_University_Press" title="Oxford University Press">Oxford University Press</a>, New York & Oxford, 1991, p. 718. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0195046528" title="Special:BookSources/0195046528">0195046528</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Ovid, <i>Her</i>. 20</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Carol Poster and Linda C. Mitchell, eds., <i>Letter-Writing Manuals and Instruction from Antiquity to the Present</i> (Columbia, SC: U of South Carolina Press, 2007).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-ELW-medievalBritain-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-ELW-medievalBritain_7-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-ELW-medievalBritain_7-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFJolly2001" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1">Jolly, Margaretta, ed. (2001). "Britain: Medieval Letters". <i>Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms</i>. London: Routledge. pp. 131–132. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781579582326" title="Special:BookSources/9781579582326"><bdi>9781579582326</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Britain%3A+Medieval+Letters&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+Life+Writing%3A+Autobiographical+and+Biographical+Forms&rft.place=London&rft.pages=131-132&rft.pub=Routledge&rft.date=2001&rft.isbn=9781579582326&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:1-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:1_8-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:1_8-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/letters-letter-writing-and-epistolary-novels">"British Library"</a>. <i>www.bl.uk</i>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20211005205430/https://www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/letters-letter-writing-and-epistolary-novels">Archived</a> from the original on 2021-10-05<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2021-10-05</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=www.bl.uk&rft.atitle=British+Library&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bl.uk%2Frestoration-18th-century-literature%2Farticles%2Fletters-letter-writing-and-epistolary-novels&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0187.xml">"Letters and Letter Writing"</a>. <i>obo</i>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20211005205429/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0187.xml">Archived</a> from the original on 2021-10-05<span class="reference-accessdate">. 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Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2021-10-05</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Bluestocking+Oxford&rft.atitle=Public+and+Private%2C+Real+and+Fictional%3A+The+Rise+of+Women%27s+Letter-Writing+in+the+Eighteenth+Century&rft.date=2011-03-01&rft.au=BluestockingOxford&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fblue-stocking.org.uk%2F2011%2F03%2F01%2Fpublic-and-private-real-and-fictional-the-rise-of-womens-letter-writing-in-the-eighteenth-century%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFsjmuseum2019" class="citation web cs1">sjmuseum (2019-07-02). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://sjmuseum.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/writing-letters-in-the-18th-century/">"Writing Letters in the 18th century"</a>. <i>The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum Blog</i>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20211005205428/https://sjmuseum.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/writing-letters-in-the-18th-century/">Archived</a> from the original on 2021-10-05<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2021-10-05</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=The+Samuel+Johnson+Birthplace+Museum+Blog&rft.atitle=Writing+Letters+in+the+18th+century&rft.date=2019-07-02&rft.au=sjmuseum&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fsjmuseum.wordpress.com%2F2019%2F07%2F02%2Fwriting-letters-in-the-18th-century%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://dulwichcentre.com.au/letters-in-the-street/">"<span class="cs1-kern-left"></span>'Print Letters in the street: A narrative based outreach approach'<span class="cs1-kern-right"></span>"</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190408114305/https://dulwichcentre.com.au/letters-in-the-street/">Archived</a> from the original on 2019-04-08<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2019-04-08</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=%27Print+Letters+in+the+street%3A+A+narrative+based+outreach+approach%27&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdulwichcentre.com.au%2Fletters-in-the-street%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-NEFSC20140314-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-NEFSC20140314_13-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFDawicki2014" class="citation web cs1">Dawicki, Shelley (March 14, 2014). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/news/features/mv_bottle/">"Drift Bottle Found on Martha's Vineyard Has Quite a Story to Tell"</a>. NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150210235757/http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/news/features/mv_bottle">Archived</a> from the original on February 10, 2015.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Drift+Bottle+Found+on+Martha%27s+Vineyard+Has+Quite+a+Story+to+Tell&rft.pub=NOAA%27s+Northeast+Fisheries+Science+Center+%28NEFSC%29&rft.date=2014-03-14&rft.aulast=Dawicki&rft.aufirst=Shelley&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nefsc.noaa.gov%2Fnews%2Ffeatures%2Fmv_bottle%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFGlenday2013" class="citation book cs1">Glenday, Craig (2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/guinnessworldrec0000unse_r3e7/page/127"><i>Guinness Book of World Records 2014</i></a>. pp. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/guinnessworldrec0000unse_r3e7/page/127">127</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-908843-15-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-908843-15-9"><bdi>978-1-908843-15-9</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Guinness+Book+of+World+Records+2014&rft.pages=127&rft.date=2013&rft.isbn=978-1-908843-15-9&rft.aulast=Glenday&rft.aufirst=Craig&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fguinnessworldrec0000unse_r3e7%2Fpage%2F127&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-tele1-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-tele1_15-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170413195911/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3683828/Royal-Mail-delivers-letter-89-years-late.html">"Royal Mail delivers letter 89 years late"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph" title="The Daily Telegraph">The Daily Telegraph</a></i>. 8 December 2008. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3683828/Royal-Mail-delivers-letter-89-years-late.html">the original</a> on 13 April 2017<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">13 April</span> 2017</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Daily+Telegraph&rft.atitle=Royal+Mail+delivers+letter+89+years+late&rft.date=2008-12-08&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fnewstopics%2Fhowaboutthat%2F3683828%2FRoyal-Mail-delivers-letter-89-years-late.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALetter+%28message%29" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Letter_(message)&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Commons-logo.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/12px-Commons-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/18px-Commons-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/24px-Commons-logo.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1024" data-file-height="1376" /></a></span> Media related to <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Letters_(written_messages)" class="extiw" title="commons:Category:Letters (written messages)">Letters (written messages)</a> at Wikimedia Commons</li> <li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wikisource-logo.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/15px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="15" height="16" class="mw-file-element" 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